Some of the city’s most popular retail shops — from Two Old Hippies to Project 615 — have signed letters of intent to open outposts at the airport under a major overhaul of its concessions operation, according to the Airport Authority.

Airport executives hope the new retail lineup will help transform the airport into more of a shopping hub for tourists and locals alike, encouraging travelers to spend their layovers or pre-flight down time shopping for Nashville confections, Tennessee-branded goods and clothing from local boutiques.

“The number one goal is for all guests who arrive to Nashville to experience the true Nashville at the airport,” said Ben Zandi, president of Fraport, the German firm awarded the new Nashville airport concessions contract. “Number two is to improve their dwell time because now this is a really cool place to hang out, shop, listen to music, record your own music, go listen to live entertainment, shop with local vendors on the retail side, shop with local vendors on the food and beverage side.”

Lease negotiations are still underway, and letters of intent don’t always translate into signed deals, but the preliminary list of retailers planned for the airport includes chains such as Sunglass Hut and James Avery jewelry, plus an impressive roster of local businesses.

Planned airport businesses include Project 615, Parnassus, Two Old Hippies

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Nashville International airport will have brand new restaurant and shopping experience for travelers.
Nashville Tennessean

The new concessions program will include roughly 90 new locations of food and beverage, retail, passenger services, news, gifts and amenities, according to the Airport Authority. Development of the new concessions will start this year and continue through early 2023.

“When you go to the airport, you don’t necessarily see local retail. You sometimes see local food and beverage, but not necessarily from a retail standpoint,” said Derek Evans, co-founder of popular philanthropic retail brand Project 615. “… I think knowing it would be mostly Nashville businesses, that kind of gave us a little extra motivation.”

Two Old Hippies is one of several local retailers planned for the Nashville airport.(Photo11: Courtesy of Two Old Hippies)

Evans plans to open a 1,000-square-foot retail shop, selling some of Project 615’s most popular designs. He’s hoping the store will appeal to travelers from around the world.

“We’re wanting to get into more of the eyes of tourists, so this is a good opportunity for us because we will be able to do that,” Evans said.

Airports across the U.S. are boosting their retail offerings to get more cash flowing and encourage longer visits. The Pittsburgh International Airport even offers the nonflying public access to part of the airport via its myPITpass program, in which people can shop, dine and explore the terminal with no boarding pass required. Those visitors must still pass a security checkpoint.

Nashville Airport Authority CEO Doug Kreulen said he’d like to bring a similar program to the Nashville airport, which saw a record 15.9 million passengers in 2018.

“We’re really hoping we’re able to do that with our TSA and all our business partners, because we will go from beyond just stages where we do music, but we can now do Saturday shows for kids or self-help stuff or something that would draw people to the airport that may be flying or may not be flying,” Kreulen said. “That would add to the number of people coming through the airport.”

The airport’s new concessions program will feature “street pricing,” where the price of goods will be comparable to non-airport shops and restaurants. Zandi said that will be critical in encouraging visitors to shop.

“If you want to pay $5 for a bottle of water, that’s not going to fly well with you, because now you immediately have this perception of, ‘I can’t shop here.’ But if you pay street pricing and you feel comfortable about that, now the offering is tremendous because you feel like you need to shop,” Zandi said.

Reporter Nate Rau contributed to this report.

Reach Lizzy Alfs at lalfs@tennessean.com or 615-726-5948 and on Twitter @lizzyalfs.